1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and a recording method, and in particular relates to a recording apparatus capable of interval recording and a recording method.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a conventionally known recording apparatus that shoots a moving image and records it on a recording medium such as a memory card. One example of this type of recording apparatus has an interval shooting function for shooting a moving image for a certain time (number of frames) at a predetermined time interval (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-80340).
With an SD memory card, which is one type of memory card, it is possible to perform writing in units of a recording unit (RU), which is the minimum writing unit, and also perform writing in units of an allocation unit (AU), whose size is an integral multiple of the size of the RU. Data can be written at a higher speed when performing writing in AU units than when performing writing in RU units.
There are cases where moving image data has a higher data rate than still picture data, and even with moving image data obtained by interval shooting, writing is performed in AU units similarly to the case of performing normal moving image shooting. However, since the shooting time for each instance in interval shooting is generally short, the size of the obtained moving image data piece is often smaller than the size of the AU, and an unused area will remain in an AU. However, the moving image data obtained in the next instance of the interval shooting will be written into an unused AU, thus resulting in the unused area of the previously recorded AU being wasted.
The present invention addresses this issue in conventional technology, and provides a recording apparatus that can effectively use the recording area of a recording medium in the case where moving image data obtained by interval shooting is recorded to the recording medium, and a recording method.